MAYA ANGELOU

By: Colleen, Jake, and Ambeka

Maya Angelou "I never dared dream of a black president."



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Maya Angelou, 1993

Changes Created By Maya Angelou:

Not only did Maya Angelou entertain others, but she changed other people's view point on how black women were treated over the years by the use of her literature. Without her poetry and all of her scripts, people all over the world would not have realized the hardships that black women had to go through. Maya Angelou had opened the eyes of many people. Even today, Angelou's works still continue to astonish people. Through several scripts and hundreds of stanzas, Angelou expresses her true feelings about discrimination against black people. By the use of vivid descriptions and amazing figurative language, Maya Angelou shows her readers what the true art of language is.
Something else that Maya Angelou has changed is the course of history. She worked very close with Malcolm X and even Martin Luther King Jr. as part of the civil rights movement. If it wasn't for all of these people, then there would still be segregation. These are the kind of people that will never be followers, but will always be leaders. These are the kind of people that know right from wrong. And these are the kind of people that change our history, people, and world.





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Maya Angelou in San Fransico, 1970





Time Line:


1928- Born in St. Louis Missouri on April 4, as Marguerite Ann Johnson. Her brother nicknamed her Maya.


1940- Graduated from Lafayette Country Training School (Stamps, Arkansas) with Honors


1944- Graduated from Mission High School


1944- Age 17, gives birth to son, Clyde; she didn't marry his father


1952- Married a man named Tosh Angelos in (1952 marriage ended).


1957- Appeared in an off-Broadway play (Calypso Heat Wave)


1961- Travels to London and Africa

1963 to 1966- Became assistant administrator of Music and Drama School (University of Ghana); employed by Ghanaian Broadcast Corp. and Ghanaian Times newspaper


1968- Writes and produces a ten-part PBS television series on African traditions in American life, Black, Blues, Black


1973- Marries Paul Du Feu; makes Broadway debut in Look Away; nominated for Tony Award for performance.


1980- Marriage to Paul Du Feu dissolved


1983- Honored with Matrix Award given by Women in Communication, Inc.


1988- Appears on Bill Moyers's PBS program "The Face of Evil"


1990-Receives Candace Award for the poem I Shall Not Be Moved


1993- Presents "On the Pulse of the Morning" at President Clinton's inauguration


1995- David Frost interview; reads "A Brave and Startling Truth" at 50th Anniversary of United Nations; gives a reading at Million Man March, Washington, D.C.; Angelou costarred in the motion picture How to Make an American Quilt.



Photostory


Song: "Sleep Away" By: Bob Acri



Life Doesn't Frighten Me By: Maya Angelou
Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn't frighten me at all

Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn't frighten me at all

Mean old Mother Goose
Lions on the loose
They don't frighten me at all

Dragons breathing flame
On my counterpane
That doesn't frighten me at all.

I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won't cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild

Life doesn't frighten me at all.

Tough guys fight
All alone at night
Life doesn't frighten me at all.

Panthers in the park
Strangers in the dark
No, they don't frighten me at all.

That new classroom where
Boys all pull my hair
(Kissy little girls
With their hair in curls)
They don't frighten me at all.

Don't show me frogs and snakes
And listen for my scream,
If I'm afraid at all
It's only in my dreams.

I've got a magic charm
That I keep up my sleeve
I can walk the ocean floor
And never have to breathe.

Life doesn't frighten me at all
Not at all
Not at all.
Life doesn't frighten me at all.


Maya Angelou's Works:


Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou

Poems

  • Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie (1971)
  • Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975)
  • And Still I Rise (1978)
  • Poems: Maya Angelou (1986)
  • Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987)
  • I Shall Not Be Moved (1990)
  • On the Pulse of the Morning (1993)
  • The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994)
  • A Brave and Startling Truth (1995)

Autobiographies

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ( 1970)
  • Gather Together in My Name (1974)
  • Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976)
  • The Heart of a Woman (1981)
  • Why I Moved Back to the South (1982)
  • All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)
  • My Grandson, Home at Last (1986)

Works Cited:

  • Shuker, Nancy. Maya Angelou. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Silver Burdett, 1990. Print.








  • "Maya Angelou." Reference Library of American Women. Ed. Jennifer Mossman. Vol. 1. 20-21. Print.